Didn't see this posted, sorry if a dupe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102366.html?hpid=topnewsNEW ORLEANS, May 11 -- The massive federally funded program for rebuilding Louisiana homes is short nearly $3 billion, administrators told a state legislative panel here today, leaving uncertain for now how the owners of roughly 100,000 flood-wrecked houses here will be compensated.
The report represented the latest crisis for the aid effort initially created to distribute $6.9 billion in federal money to the owners of homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina who lacked enough insurance money to rebuild.
More than 20 months after the Katrina catastrophe, tens of thousands of houses remain vacant, in part because of administrative delays in the aid program, the largest single source of direct federal help for homeowners. To date, only 16,000 of 130,000 applicants have received money.
Now, ICF Consulting, the Fairfax firm hired to administer the claims as part of Louisiana's Road Home program, projects that the allotted aid budget of $6.9 billion will fall $2.9 billion short of the claims from homeowners who have been promised checks.
The report set off a flurry of negotiating and political posturing over the origins of the shortfall and source of the additional money for the program.
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Almost two years out, and people are still waiting. It really boggles the mind.